Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Please Help, What Do I Have Here?

These are photos of Armenian cucumber roots, are the white nodules nitrogen-fixing? I know about nitrogen-fixing in Fabaceae family, are there nitrogen-fixing clade in Cucumis or I'm looking at nematodes? Thanks for your help.

Shawn Ann, michelle, Rohrerbot,Thank you for your input, I think you are right about root knot nematodes. Fortunately the soil is isolated in a half barrel, I'll follow UC Davis pest notes on Nematodes to treat the soil and not use the container for a while.

Yup. Root knot nematodes. I get them too sometimes. So I rotate the Ground Control marigolds around the yard. Usually they go with my tomatoes so they don't affect them. I've been told crushed chitinous shells works too (like crab shells). But marigolds are easy and pretty and shells I'd have to import.